So how come Australia is still locked down?

[Teddypops]

So Australia has approx 20 new cases a day and barely no deaths.

So how come they are still locked down?

Our cities are larger than any in France except Paris, our cities being small is not the reason we have escaped. Our population is not spread out over the whole continent. 40% live in either melbourne or Sydney, 2 cities. Another 40-something % live in the rest of the cities. Its equivalent to including the channel in your land mass, about as many people live in the channel as do in our central deserts.
I am not arguing London is very dense, and an international centre. That’s why I lived there till late last year. But you aren’t doing yourself any favours by continuing to imagine this false reality about Australia or by refusing to admit the uk could have done better. We had no headlines about trying for herd immunity because our leaders didn’t consider anything so ridiculous and damaging. Oxford shouldn't have any cases by your reckoning, it’s so much smaller than Sydney it’s barely a village.

@eaglejulesk but the UK HAVE taken it seriously. We have been on a lockdown for weeks. We have built several
new hospitals. People have lost their jobs. People are working from home with kids clawing up their legs. Kids are not in school and we are cancelling A Levels and GCSEs for the first time ever. Weddings have been cancelled with loss of money. Grandparents are not seeing their grandkids and kids and vice versa. It’s actually quite offensive to say that people aren’t taking this seriously here. Of course there are some twats in a population of 65 million. But the vast majority of us are taking it seriously including the government and its advisors.

And we went on lockdown at the same time (actually at an earlier stage) than Italy or Spain did. I am really baffled how we can be seen to not have taken it seriously. This is a pandemic that is far far from over. We may have SLIGHTLY higher overall deaths now (even tho here isn’t even a common way of counting) but this is only the beginning. Even the experts say we should stop comparing.

Anyway I am off out to enjoy the sunshine because I am baffled still at why people think the UK as done worse than other European countries. Unless it really is that people are obsessed with seeing the UK seemingly doing badly - which I very much doubt is the case and a very narcissistic way of looking at ourselves.

And when I say off our to enjoy the sunshine I mean in my garden I am lucky to have before somebody shouts at me

Australia has a completely different set up, each of your houses are spread out individually. You do not have very large cities like other countries. Your an island so to speak with air travel being the main source of travel. Logistics are so much easier with that kind of set up. With just 24 million spread over such a large land mass, you will only have had to contend with hot spots. In reality Australia could be doing the same as South Korea, would be effortless really.

I completely agree it is a very different set-up and there has definitely not been any better management.

But, have you ever been to Australia? Your post would indicate not or you maybe came 20 years ago? In most major cities freestanding house and apartment living would now be getting pretty close to 50/50. So, no each of our houses are not necessarily spread out individually, but yes this is still probably the case with Neighbours.

Also, we are not spread out over our really large land mass. The vast majority is uninhabitable outback, except for the odd cattle station that uses many thousands of square kilometres and you need to use aerial means to cover. We are actually mainly concentrated in pockets of inhabitable land around the coastal areas. This is where our cities are located and 99% of towns. But yes, obviously we do have localised hotspots for Covid within these.

I am sure you must also be aware that there are two separate strains of coronavirus, the one spreading in Australia may not as dangerous or as infectious (yet) as the one spreading across Europe. This was established at the beginning of March.

It is also known that viruses continue to mutate. So I will say it again. It is far too early to make any assumptions whatsoever about the outbreak, who is affected and whether responses were adequate.

I will add time that your opinion about the British government and how they have responded is of no value whatsoever, you do not live here, you you do not understand the logistics or the science, and can not comment. Comparing the two countries is like comparing oil and water, and hugely distasteful at a time like this. I can only imagine that you are not happy with your own life, if you feel it is okay to be so incredibly insensitive.

Please show some compassion if you are going to post on here.

www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.03.28.20036715v5

@Bool - I was talking about pre-lockdown, when your govt was so sure that herd immunity was the way to go. As for taking it seriously since - just look at all the posts on MN in recent weeks - so many people really are not taking it seriously and not doing what they have been asked. I realise it is only a minority, but there seems to be rather a lot of people who think the rules do not apply to them. Your lockdown also was not really as strict as it could have been. Your testing came late and there have been frequent references to people not being taken to hospital until they were very ill. Not to mention your PM shaking hands with infected people! That's not what I call well managed.

I’ve lived in the U.K. for years. I only moved back to Australia late last year, and have siblings and friends there so am in daily contact, I’m a dual citizen and my children were born there. Yet another made up assumption.

Please read where they say the new virulent strain is dominant in Australia. www.abc.net.au/news/2020-05-06/new-coronavirus-covid19-strain-mutation-hits-vaccine-research/12218834

Friends arrived in Perth from UK at start April. They were collected by authorities and taken to hotel where they quarantined.in their room for 14 days. Not allowed outside it. Disposable cutlery the lot!

times I couldn't care less who you know. Stop being offensive.

I do acknowledge all the differences that make the U.K. more vulnerable. But they don’t change the facts that the uk also failed to act. The government intentionally declined to participate in EU PPE sourcing. After a few days of claiming oh administrative error they had to admit it was deliberate. Boasting about shaking hands in a covid hospital? The U.K. seemed so clueless. My sibling is in London and her aust company got in touch close to 2 months ago to suggest they came back to oz within the next 24 hours - just left everything and booked a flight if they could. London was still buzzing. We closed our borders a couple of days later, an unprecedented action. I feel very strongly for the friends and family there, but you should be mad at your government, not me.

@eaglejulesk as I have said multiple times in multiple threads. Herd immunity is not a strategy. It is the natural outcome of a novel virus spreading. It will happen naturally. It’s a matter of time. Unless we achieve herd immunity via a vaccine. But that is a long way off. Our government darent state that anymore because they get accused of wanting it in some way when in fact it will just happen anyway. Point is that it happens slowly so we don’t overwhelm the health services.

I don’t think you should be looking at a few angry posts on fb about whether people are doing lockdown. The majority are.

I also don’t understand this obsession that the UK has the loosest lockdown. That is simply not true. I know the Netherlands as one example don’t have a once a day exercise limit. Why oh why is there this misinformation that the UK is the least strict. It is simply not true. And why do we need it to be more strict anyway when our health systems are not overwhelmed. As said many times the lockdown isn’t to stop the spread. It is to slow it down.

As to your other points it is all hearsay and propaganda.

I am not mad at the government at all time nor is anyone I know. They have done a good job.

Calling people clueless, who do you think you are?? Your posts come from a place of dissatisfaction with your own life, I'd focus on that if I were you.

And this stupid idea of quarantining everyone arriving for 14 days is exactly that. Stupid. The virus is already here. It is making zero difference in the USA. The virus is still spreading there. If we had done it early on then fair enough. But it’s too late now and will cause even more economic damage that will kill even more people.

The scientists have already said it would make little difference. It is a pr move designed to shut the media up

Herd immunity is not a strategy. It is the natural outcome of a novel virus spreading.
It’s not at all a given that it’s a natural outcome. We have never had measles herd immunity, we have never had polio or tb or mumps herd immunity, we just had more dead and disabled every year or wave until there was a vaccine.

@timeisnotaline. Time for a biology lesson. Of course we have herd immunity to measles!!! 95% population immunity to measles is herd immunity. What are you talking about. We just so happen to get that immunity via a vaccine. We don’t have a vaccine for Covid. So we will get it naturally. By catching it and creating antibodies.

I am sure you must also be aware that there are two separate strains of coronavirus, the one spreading in Australia may not as dangerous or as infectious (yet) as the one spreading across Europe

That’s not why people aren’t dying. They aren’t dying because people don’t have the disease. We are testing massive numbers of people here in Australia and still nt finding cases. That is because the borders were shut early and there has been strict quarantine and contact tracing.

We are doing so well because we locked down. Why would we let that off when we have the chance to totally eliminate and open up inside our state borders?

We did it early. We have PPE. Our health service is doing fine because we have so few cases AND the advantage of warning (although the UK had warning and did little about it in terms of prevention)

Vaccinations give herd immunity. Catching something and recovering and creating antibodies give herd immunity. Mumps we have herd immunity. Measles ditto (until the anti vaxxers come along and we lose it). Ditto polio.

Australia should be seriously angry right now

Look at their figures

And hats off to this brave lady

twitter.com/OzraeliAvi/status/1259081832085090305

Australia should be seriously angry right now

Sorry why am I meant to be angry?

@timeisnotaline do you realise what a vaccine is? In most cases it is a weak strain of the virus which then enables your body to create the antibodies against it. By catching Covid we are replicating what a virus does albeit obviously in a less controlled and safe way. So we will either get herd immunity to Covid via a vaccine or by 65% of us catching it and creating immunity. It will happen naturally over time.

@bool sorry if I wasn’t clear. I mean we have not to my knowledge achieved herd immunity to a serious disease WITHOUT a vaccine. Just more sick and dead people. An effective vaccine is the only way to herd immunity so any herd immunity strategy that isn’t entirely relying on a vaccine is bollocks. (I say effective because the flu vaccine for example is not effective enough - I think if you work the formula through you would have to vaccinate about 130% of the population to achieve herd immunity, obviously not a precise number but equally obviously not possible!)

Replicating what a vaccine does not a virus!

@timeisnotaline Spanish flu? And this is exactly why this is terrifying. But just because it hasn’t happened recently before does not mean it won’t happen naturally.